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Showing posts from June, 2010

Breakfast of Champions

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If you've never slathered low fat  pound cake  toast with homemade low sugar  refrigerator jam , or store bought marmalade or peanut butter or even a whisper of butter or margarine, you've been missing out. Sprinkle a teaspoon of sunflower seeds on top and you have an under two hundred calorie  Flat Belly Diet breakfast complete with MUFA. So brew a pot of tea and pull out your toaster -- eating healthier never tasted so yummy.

And So Begins Canning Season

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Jam challenged? I sure am. Just because there's a row of raspberry bushes in the backyard and my husband happens to have a green thumb doesn't make me an expert anything. Some things I struggle with and jam is one of those things. If you have a hard time with fruit jams then this is the recipe for you. It works with crushed strawberries just as well -- has low sugar content and is easy to spread. Next Saturday morning, serve your homemade jam slathered on store bought lo-fat corn muffins (heat them up in a 325 degree F oven for ten minutes or so) with the morning joe. Your house will feel more like a B & B than an average family kitchen. Now that's the way to start a pleasant weekend. RASPBERRY REFRIGERATOR JAM 4 cups washed and drained raspberries 1/2 cup sugar 2 ounces orange liqueur One squeeze of a lemon 1/2 package Ball Fruit Jell No Sugar Needed Pectin 2/3 cup water Add sugar, orange liqueur, and a splash of lemon juice to raspberries in a medium sau

Cheery Cherries

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Not everything in life is easy. Take pitting a pound or two of fresh cherries -- a real PITA (Pain In The Ass) but once you bite into this Cheery Cherry Tart it'll all be forgotten. Today was Father's Day. Ask any dad who worried that the mother of his children would never forgive him for his part in convincing her to make him a dad. OK, so the truth is that we never forget and we do tend to talk about it in gory detail for months afterward. Especially to other new moms -- it's like comparing notes after final exams. But we don't mind so much once it's over and the babies are so loveable that most of us are willing to try it again. Having reason to celebrate Father's Day and/or Mother's Day is worth it. Kinda like pitting cherries. CHEERY CHERRY TART Crust: 1 -1/4 cup all-purpose flour 1/3 cup confectioner sugar Dash of salt 1/8 teaspoon almond extract 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 teaspoon lemon zest 1/2 cup melted unsalted butter, allowed t

Thank you, George W... I mean it..

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Our backyard raspberries are ripe for the picking. For the next two weeks, I will pick a cup or two of luscious homegrown raspberries daily. So by now you must be wondering what do my fresh juicy berries have to do with former White House occupant George W. Bush -- I finally found something to thank him for. This Berry Angel recipe is adapted from an angel muffin Bush years White House executive chef, Bill Yosses insists on calling breakfast food. Before arriving at the Bush White House in 2007, Yosses had three decades under his apron strings as a French pastry chef and at some of New York's finest restaurants. His new cookbook, titled The Perfect Finish features these fluffy meringue based cakes that Chef Yosses calls "the eighth wonder of the world." Add a dollop of fresh whipped cream and  I couldn't agree more. When it comes to yummy ... mission accomplished. BERRY ANGELS 2/3 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 cup powdered sugar dash of salt 1 cup fresh berries (r

Plum Good Chicken

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The Chinese method of poaching chicken before baking guarantees a far more tender chicken than traditional western baked chicken and lends itself to using the juicy leftovers for fabulous chicken salad. I learned about this by reading a Chinese cookbook more than twenty years ago. I'd bought the book hoping to learn the secret of making Chinese boneless barbequed pork. The pork was a failure but this chicken method has become my favorite. The glaze is my own version of Chinese plum glaze -- apricot jam or mandarin marmalade make a lovely glaze too but I always come back to plum. All fruit sugar free jams can be substituted for a low sugar diet. Yummy. FRUIT GLAZED CHICKEN 1 whole chicken (3-4 pounds) 3 tablespoons soy sauce 1/ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper 2 tablespoons plum jelly 2 tablespoons mango chutney 1/2 teaspoon honey Rub chicken with soy sauce inside and out, generously season with black pepper. Put it in a pan with about 1 inch of cold water. Slowly bring